A clause-by-clause review of the cross-strait service trade pact was supported by a majority of respondents in a poll released yesterday, and almost half said the pact would pose a significant national security threat if passed.
Asked how they viewed the service trade pact — which is awaiting legislative review before taking effect — 73.7 percent said they supported a line-by-line review, while 10.2 percent said the deal should be put to a vote as a package and 16.1 percent did not give an opinion in the survey conducted by Taiwan Indicator Survey Research (TISR)
Overall, 44.5 percent of the respondents said they did not support the trade pact, with 32.8 percent supportive and 22.9 percent not giving an answer.
Respondents expressed greater concern toward the deal’s impact on national security and sovereignty, with 50 percent saying it would pose more disadvantages than advantages in those areas.
Opinions about the economic impacts were mixed, as 32.7 percent of the respondents said economic advantages would outweigh the disadvantages, while 25.8 percent had the opposite view. A further 4.9 percent said the disadvantages and advantages were about equal and 26.6 percent declined to answer.
On the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City, 59.4 percent supported at least a temporary suspension of construction, up 1.4 percent from a similar poll in March last year.
Of the respondents, 33.2 percent called for a permanent suspension. A further 17.4 percent said construction should be temporarily suspended until the plant passes safety checks and 8.8 percent said the suspension should remain until the decision of a national referendum.
Less than a quarter, or 23.4 percent, supported completing the construction, including 21 percent who said that the plant should be in operation. A further 2.4 percent said it should be completed, but not put into operation.
The survey also put President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) latest approval rating at 14.3 percent, with a disapproval rating of 74.9 percent.
Meanwhile, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) received almost the lowest support rate since he assumed the position in February last year, with an approval rate of 15.3 percent, only 0.2 percentage points higher than his lowest record in September last year.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
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